Accidents commonly happen as the result of driver inattention resulting from fatigue or drowsiness. A majority of automobile accidents caused by such fatigue or drowsiness are motor vehicle (e.g., truck and automobile) collisions on interstate or other highways where, for example, monotonous road and scenery conditions promote “highway hypnotism” and attendant driver fatigue and/or drowsiness.
Devices have been developed which sound an alarm to alert the driver when the driver has dozed off but which do not test the current driving ability of the driver and thus are of limited value in many potentially dangerous situations. Other devices do test the driver but suffer other shortcomings. The latter category includes devices such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,455 to Williams et al and U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,108 to Tabin et al. The Williams et al patent discloses a driver alerting device comprising green, yellow and red indicator lights, a timer, a resetting mechanism and an audible alarm. The driver is required to reset the device after the illumination of the green light. If the device is not reset before a first timed period has elapsed, the yellow light then illuminates and flashes for a second timed period. If the device is not reset before the second timed period has elapsed, the red light then illuminates and flashes, and the audible alarm sounds until the device is reset. The Tabin et al patent discloses a driver alerting device including a red indicator light, a timer, a resetting mechanism and an audible alarm. The driver is required to reset the device within a timed period after the red indicator light illuminates and begins flashing. If the driver does not reset the device before the timed period has elapsed, the audible alarm then sounds. Other patents of interest in this field include U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,226 to Love and U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,928 to Washington et al.
In our earlier U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,702, we disclose a driver fatigue detector which tests a driver for the onset of fatigue and/or drowsiness and, more particularly, tests the driver as to whether the eyes of the driver are properly focussed on the road ahead. The device of our patent interrupts periods of fatigue or drowsiness by causing the driver to respond or be warned. The device will reduce or eliminate accidents attributable to the phenomenon of “highway hypnotism” described above, will reduce such accidents such as rear-end collisions and potentially dangerous situations occurring in the traffic lane and on the side of the road, running off the road, crossing the center line or median, sideswiping moving or parked vehicles, running red lights or stop signs, loss of control or rollovers due to evasive maneuvers, and rollovers or like accidents at exit ramps caused by fast last minute turns caused by the inattention of the driver in noting a desired exit in time to slow down.
The device of our prior patent is concerned with alerting a driver of an automotive vehicle as to the onset of fatigue, characterized by eyelid droop, head droop and a like condition wherein the eyes of a driver are not directed straight ahead onto the road, and comprises, inter alia, a housing or case adapted to be affixed to a portion of the automotive vehicle so as to be located at the upper periphery of the field of vision of the driver, the housing including an indicator lamp viewable by the driver in the upper periphery of the field of vision of the driver, an electrical control circuit for controlling illumination of the indicator lamp so as to provide illumination thereof after passage of a predetermined time interval, a driver controlled reset switch for providing resetting of the time interval upon depression of the reset switch by the driver, and alarm means for producing an alarm signal when the indicator lamp has been illuminated after the passage of said predetermined time interval and the reset switch has not been depressed after passage of a further predetermined time period.
As described in our prior patent, the driver also has the option to turn the device off when, for example, the driver is in heavy city traffic or any other time that the driver can be certain that fatigue or drowsiness will not set in, thereby preventing the device from being a nuisance when not required.